7/24/2004 02:52:38 PM|||Nathan Moore|||

Al Hunt has an article in the Wall Street Journal today. If sycophancy were a kingdom, Mr. Hunt would rule it as a true believer.  About the upcoming Democratic convention and the party legacy (pun intended) of Bill Clinton, Hunt espouses the following

He moved the Democrats to the center while keeping the party's political base energized and committed.

That is manifest in the lack of any controversy at the 44th convention of the world's oldest political party; Democrats have put aside their penchant for fractious--often irrelevant--fights over the platform or party rules. The Clinton agenda is the agenda of Democrats of most every stripe.

First of all, the position Hunt stakes out is completely amorphus, which is certainly an appropriate tact to take with his subject.  Which agenda is he referring to? Winning at any cost? It seems so

Politically, says former Clinton aide and now Congressman Rahm Emanuel, "We're the Vince Lombardi party. Winning is everything."
 
Of course.  What a worthwhile agenda.  In football, winning is indeed everything. In politics, adults understand the stakes are a little higher.  Seeking power for the sole sake of exercising it is a dangerous path to follow.  The agenda that Hunt is describing in such glowful terms throughout his piece is that path.  It is a path that was empaneled in Clinton's presidency, and was embodied in the effort to ensure his political survival.

To be sure, others deserve credit too. As president, Bill Clinton never could have kept Democrats unified without the incalculable assistance of Newt Gingrich and Ken Starr. And John Kerry's ability to transcend the party's customary interest groups and raise unimaginable sums of money would not have been possible without George W. Bush. The current president has unified America--into two distinct and solidly partisan blocs. 

It's easier to defend the indefensible when you are unprincipled.  Principles sometimes require the abandonment of an individual, because any principle worth believing in is larger than any one person.  If your goal is power, and the means employed  are purely Machiavellian, the only concern is with the vehicle that gets you where you want to be.  When your agenda is held together with a hate based adhesive, you have no agenda worth having.

The Democrats of today are not the heirs of the previous generations.  Democrats today are no more related to FDR or Kennedy than a bullfrog is to an elephant.

More unbelievably, Mr. Hunt believes that Bill Clinton strengthened the Democratic Party, allegedly by moving it to the center.  Bill Clinton strengthened himself by moving to the center - but he used the members of his party as political bodyguards, all of whom were expected to take a bullet for him.  And many bullets did they take.  His presidency saw the loss of the House of Representatives, the Senate, the majority of governorships, and a significant number of state legislatures.  His vice president lost an election that he should have easily won.  Most of his former cabinet members who ran for office were defeated (Bill Richardson being the more significant exception).  So, by Al Hunt's twisted logic, the more Democrats lose, the stronger they become. 

Come back to reality, Al - we're waiting on you.

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